Humour in Television Advertising

Humour can be defined as the capability to be laughing at things, the way in which everybody sees that some things are entertaining, or the value of being funny. Funniness is generally used within publicity nowadays whether this is on radio, in newspapers, or on TV as part of daily advertising communications campaigns. TV marketing tells most of its stories in thirty second periods.
With such short time frame to communicate a message across, advertisers have used humour as a way of breaking through the noise and clutter in an attempt to grab the attention of the viewer. Feelings evoked through the use of humour can also lead brand positive associations, as well as increasing the comprehension levels of the viewer.
Although humour is commonly used in advertising campaigns today and due to the complexities involved in its measurement, the actual effectiveness of humour as communications tool is still a subject of much debate. On one hand, humour can enhance positive attitudes towards the product being promoted. On the other hand, the use of humour may be regarded as unsuitable for the product that is being promoted. If humour draws attention away from the product or message that the advertiser is trying to communicate, what is the real effectiveness of it as a tool of communication and why do advertisers still use it?
The objective of this study is to explore the different types of humour used in television advertising and to identify which is the most widely used, in an attempt to address whether the use of humour in advertising is at all effective.
A number of studies have been conducted regarding the use of humour in advertising. Although humour has been used in advertising for many years, due to its complexity in nature, only a few have been able to understand its actual impact and effectiveness.
Despite humour being an effective mechanism for drawing attention, it is crucial for advertisers to find the appropriate type of humour for the appropriate product in order to ensure success. Attention is enhanced if the type of humour used is directly related to the product that is being promoted, therefore increasing advertising effectiveness.
In order to determine the intensity of humour used by the majority of advertisers, adverts were judged on levels of humour. These varied from: slightly funny; mildly funny; fairly funny, and; funny.
To identify what factors make an advert funny, they were placed in four categories. These included: the situation; the characters; the dialogue, and; the environment.
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